Prodigy
by Minimatt
Summary: Sam get a message about a child prodigy, a young genius that can prove a viable asset to the SGC. But does he want to come with them? And who is the other kid?
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Just something I couldn't get out of my head fast enough to ignore it, so I decided to write it down. I'll still continue my other fic(s), but I have the most annoying tendency to start doing other things when the first ones aren't finished yet. This isn't going to be a one-shot, I hope, but it might take a serious while for me to update, writing three fics at the same time and all... I hope I didn't use an overused concept, and I hope you like it!

Reviews are welcome!

* * *

Prologue

* * *

Sam was checking her e-mail. She was reading one from some guy in Washington, she didn't know exactly who. What was in the mail was surprising, to say the least. It was near impossible!

* * *

Chapter 1

* * *

"So what I was saying is that if we could get him into the program, he would be an incredibly useful asset. He would be a true addition to the program, to our cause." Major Samantha Carter said to the bald man in front of her.

"Mayor Carter, I assume you know the problems that would arise if we would get him here?" General Hammond asked.

"Well, yes, but I seriously think the benefits outweigh the problems."

"Okay, if you say so. But where exactly did you get the information from?"

"From an old friend of my dad's. I didn't recognise the name until I searched for it. He's supposedly doing something with scouting people for the military and for in Washington, so it was only logical the information passes by him. And he knows of this program already."

"Are you sure it is reliable?"

"Pretty sure. And we could always go as a team for protection?"

"OK, you have a go. You can leave in two hours. Bring him in safely, Major."

"Yes sir!"

"Dismissed."

* * *

Malcolm was bored. Severely bored. School was supposed to be fun and all, because they'd learn you stuff, but everything was so incredibly slow here. He'd gone by the curriculum for this year already, and the school-year had only started a few weeks before. He was not looking forward to another year of boredom.

He even had gotten detention because he fell asleep during class! Geez, the stomach they had here. It's illogical to punish a kid for falling asleep in a lecture about things he obviously knew more about than the teacher. Stupid school.

Lucky for Malcolm detention was almost over, and he was the only one there. The guy that was supposed to sit here had been away for over an hour, leaving little Malcolm all alone in the room.

And he hadn't even escaped. He'd never do such a thing. If he had detention, he'd go there. He followed the rules as much as possible at any given time, except when he had fallen asleep during that one lesson. Of course, he had been working all night on his latest project that he didn't seem able to let go, but still. He'd usually follow rules.

He sighed and backed down from the chalkboard he was writing on. He stepped down from the chair he was standing on to reach the higher parts of the board, even though it was already in its lowest stance.

Malcolm was a small kid. He was only nine years old, but he was in grade six nonetheless. It made him a full three years younger than most of his classmates, and he was a whole lot smaller. He wasn't really extremely small for his age, but he wasn't big either. Only in comparison to his classmates he looked tiny.

Malcolm was a genius. They hadn't exactly tested him, but he had already skipped three grades and still could finish everything the school had to offer on this level in a few weeks. And then he'd know the same amount of things as the rest of the class would get in a whole year! Of course, he had been severely bored in class since he was enrolled in school.

He had been able to write at age three, and read around age two-and-a-half. So when elementary school started, he essentially already knew all the stuff they were going to teach him in the next years. He could have done elementary school in half the time he'd taken, but he had become lazy. Nothing really challenged him to do anything. That's why he started working on projects.

During one of those project he'd take one 'previously-thought-unsolvable'-subject, take it apart completely and find ways to either fix it, start it or stop it completely. He had written multiple reports on all of his projects, but he hadn't sent them to a university yet. Stupid professors had a minimum age-requirement of twelve. Damn them!

He had written his latest project partially on the chalkboard in front of him. The whole thing was filled with equations and numbers, all kinds of complex mathematical stuff a nine year-old wasn't even supposed to know.

He stepped back from the board, took a good look at one section of the equation and erased some numbers. He wrote a few different numbers there, making the equation almost complete.

* * *

He was startled by a knock on the door. He quickly backed down from the chair, because if he was caught standing on one he'd get extra detention. And he wasn't going to like that.

The door opened, and a woman came in. Lucky it was not the creepy guy that was supposed to babysit him here. He was scary. Behind the woman came three men. One looking old, grey hair, another one a bit younger with brown hair and glasses and the last guy was huge. He was big, muscled and wore a hat. The woman herself was not really big or small, and had blonde hair.

"Are you Malcolm Thereus?" The woman asked.

"Yes." He hated his last name. It sounded like someone with a lisp was trying to pronounce the word 'serious', but was failing at it.

"My name is Major Carter."

"Funny name." Malcolm said emotionless.

"What's so funny about it?" she asked, seemingly surprised by his statement.

"There are not many people with 'major' as a surname. But since there's a military rank called 'major', I'm guessing you're military. Which would explain the knives all four of you carry in your boots, and the hidden guns, of course."

"How did you know about those?" the older man asked.

"I didn't. Thanks for the tip." Malcolm said with a sly grin. "So what's your business here in this hellhole?"

"To suggest you something." The woman said.

Great. Now they're gonna talk me around in circles. Stupid people are here to take me away for sure. Not that I mind, anything to get out of this hellhole.

"Something what?" Malcolm asked.

"Something big, that will get you out of here and give you a chance to do great things."

"Yeah. Sure." Malcolm said sarcastically before he turned back to his chalkboard, ignoring the four people in the room.

"What are you doing?" The woman asked after a few seconds, in which Malcolm had grabbed the chair and returned to his equation.

"Working." Malcolm said. Geez, couldn't she see that he was busy? Well, ok, he wasn't actually busy but he was not in the mood to listen to what those stupid military people had to say.

"Working on what?" she asked.

"The three body problem."

"Then why is the theory for quantum physics on the board?" she asked.

OK, she caught him by surprise there. He hadn't figured her for someone who knew what the three body problem was, or quantum physics for that matter, let alone recognise the theories.

"Because it only gets hard enough to be fun when you add quantum dynamics to the mix."

"Fun?" the older man asked. "You call this fun."

"Yes. What would you call it then?"

"Numbers. Complexicated stuff about things that Carter here can bore me to no end about."

"Complexicated stuff?"

"Technical term for things he doesn't understand." The younger, brown-haired man said with a sigh.

"Hey, no disrespect for the things I do understand." The older one said with a small grin.

"Have you people got nothing better to do than waste my time here?" Malcolm asked loudly before anyone else could speak.

"Carter, the kid doesn't want it. Let's go!"

"Doesn't want what?" Malcolm asked, now getting angry. He was smart enough to know that he was being played, but he was too lazy to do something about it.

"Sir, I haven't even told him. Besides, I made an appointment with the general to show him."

"He agreed with that?"

"Yes."

"Show me what?" Malcolm asked angrily.

"The thing that will change your life forever." The woman said with a grin.

"You people are hopeless." Malcolm sighed. "Please stop wasting my time here. I've got better things to do."

* * *

A knock on the door sounded. The door opened, and a young face peeked through.

"Malcolm, I..." The young boy, couldn't have been much older than eleven or so, fell silent. "Am I interrupting something?"

"Not at all. These people were just wasting my time." Malcolm said.

"Oh, good. Then I can waste it some more. About that theory of yours," the kid said as he walked into the classroom, towards Malcolm, "I've finally gotten it to work."

"Which one, the last one or the one before that?" Malcolm said, deciding to speak 'vague' for the military people.

The other kid picked up on his choice of words, and answered vaguely too. "The last one. This was a tough one though, but I've finished it."

"So the prototype is finally working?"

"I don't think it classifies as a prototype anymore. I've tested it several times to make sure it was safe, and I think we've finally found a solution."

"You've got it here?"

"Right here with me."

"What's here?" the older man asked, interrupting the discussion between the two young boys.

"Show them?" the other boy suggested.

"Ok." Malcolm answered.

* * *

The other boy opened his backpack, which was slightly huge in comparison to him, and got two large rings out. He handed one of them to Malcolm, got an apple from his backpack and walked to the other side of the classroom.

"Make sure the side with the button is facing forward, away from you, and that you're carrying it by the handles. Otherwise bad things will happen." The kid said from the other side of the room.

"Ready?" He shouted.

"All ready!" Malcolm answered.

"Powering up NOW!" the boy said as he pushed a few buttons on the side of the ring he was carrying.

Suddenly a soft roar filled the room, and green light erupted from both rings at the same time, flickering a few times before stabilizing.

"Sending the apple through!" The kid said as he threw the apple through the green screen of light that filled the void inside the ring.

Malcolm, on the other side of the classroom, suddenly received an apple. It dropped out of the green screen of light in the inside of the ring.

"It worked!" He shouted. "It finally worked!"

As the two young boys almost jumped from happiness that their little project worked, the older man turned towards the woman.

"Did they just did what I think they did?"

"I don't know. But if they did, it would be a miracle."

* * *

A/N: And? What do you think? Viable concept for a full-fledged fic?


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Okay, here's the second chapter to my fic. Note, I'm not giving up on my other fic, I'm just having a little trouble deciding where to go with it next. I'll try to keep updating fast, but I can't promise anything. It's all up to the fics that want or don't want to be written. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it! (Messing with laws of physics is fun)

Reviews are welcome!

* * *

Chapter 2

* * *

Ten minutes later both young boys were sitting in the back of the large government-issued SUV that major Carter was driving. The younger, brown-haired man sat next to her in the front seat, and the two boys were in the back.

It hadn't taken the boys much convincing to come with major Carter to the SGC, but it had taken a whole lot of talking to convince general Hammond to let both boys take a 'tour' of the SGC.

"So what are your names exactly?" the eleven year-old boy asked.

"I'm Major Samantha Carter." The woman answered.

"And I'm Doctor Daniel Jackson. And what was your name again?"

"Michael. Michael Lake. Pleased to meet you."

"Likewise." Daniel said.

"So where are we going?"

"I can't tell you."

"Of course. So when are we arriving in Cheyenne Mountain?"

"What?"

"I asked when we'll be arriving in Cheyenne Mountain."

"I'm not falling for the same trick Jack fell for, Michael." Daniel said with a grin.

"You just did."

"How the heck did you know?"

"Let's see. We're in southern Colorado, you've just entered the John F. Kennedy Memorial Highway northwards and the closest military place north of here, and the only one reachable by car within a day, is Cheyenne Mountain, NORAD."

"Is it that obvious?"

"No. You'd have to look at the sun and know the time to guess which direction you're driving in, and that's quite hard for a normal person. Secondly you'd have to pay attention to the sounds you're hearing. There are multiple lanes of cars on both sides of us, travelling fast, so we're probably on a highway. And since the John F. Kennedy highway is the only one near here, I'm guessing we're on that one."

"Wow. I never guessed you were that smart, especially since we only came for Malcolm."

"What made you change your mind?"

"The _prototype _you've shown us."

"You're not thinking about stealing it and using it for military purposes right?" Michael asked, angst seeping in his voice.

"No, we're not going to steal it. We're not going to hurt you in any way." Sam answered.

"Good."

"Michael, are you sure your parents won't mind you being away for the rest of the day?"

"My parents died six years ago. And my adoptive parents don't really care when or if I get home, as long as I don't ruin their plans."

"That's ..." Sam searched for the right word.

"Surprising? Sad?" Michael suggested. "Not really. My adoptive parents and I reached an agreement. I wouldn't interfere with their social lives, and they would give me the basement to experiment and the freedom to do what I wanted."

"To experiment?"

Sam asked questioningly.

"Yes. Malcolm and I have been friends for the past few years, and we had a lot of fun in doing all the things we did together, right Malcolm?" Michael said to his friend.

"Yes." Malcolm answered sleepily.

"What kinds of thing did you do?"

"Well, we built..."

"Don't tell them!" Malcolm interrupted Michael.

"Why not?" Michael asked, surprised by the outburst of the always so calm Malcolm.

"Because we still don't know them well enough."

"If you say so." Michael conceded as he backed down into his chair again.

* * *

After a few minutes Michael spoke again.

"Who are the other guys?"

"Which other guys?" Sam asked.

"The old man and the giant."

"The old man is Colonel Jack O'Neill, and the 'giant' is Teal'c."

"Teal'c is a strange name." Michael commented.

"I think it means 'strength' in his native language." Daniel said.

"Cool. He looks strong too." Michael said.

"Say, Malcolm, what do you think of us so far?" Sam asked.

"I don't know you at all, and still I'm in your car being driven to, if Michael is right, Cheyenne Mountain." Malcolm said curtly.

"Don't mind Malcolm's grogginess. He's a bit more introvert than me." Michael said.

"Why's that?"

"Bullies." Malcolm said shortly.

"Are you being bullied badly?" Daniel asked, some concern audible in his voice.

"Both of us, yes." Malcolm said.

"Michael, you seem to shrug it off easily." Sam commented.

"That's because any crazy person would shrug it off." Michael returned.

"A crazy person?"

"Yeah. Life becomes so much happier when you constantly ask yourself what a crazy person would do."

"Really? Haven't tried that." Daniel said.

"It works for me anyway."

"I can imagine." Daniel sighed.

* * *

Two hours later, the two black SUV's left the highway and entered the premises of Cheyenne Mountain. They got out of the car, and started walking towards the door leading downwards.

"Cool. I never thought I'd see Cheyenne Mountain and NORAD from so close." Michael chirped happily. Malcolm, on the other hand, looked a big frightened and was trying to hide behind his enthusiastic friend.

The whole group walked towards the elevator, and got in.

They all got out, and walked the long corridors of the SGC. Michael seemed to take in as much information as he could get, looking interested at everything, whereas Malcolm looked even more frightened than before.

"Are you scared?" Sam asked to Malcolm.

"A bit." He answered softly.

"There's no need to be scared here. We won't hurt you, I promise."

"Ok." Malcolm said softly. "Where are we going?" he asked a few seconds later.

"We're going to show you what you can do and see when you chose to work with the programme."

"Ok."

* * *

A few minutes later, the whole group of six was seated at the large conference table in the conference room of the SGC. At the head of the table was, as usual in this kind of situation, General George Hammond. The bald Texan man started the conversation.

"So, young men, I presume you already know why you were brought here?" He started.

"Yes." Michael answered, whereas Malcolm only nodded.

"Then let me explain exactly what we do here at Cheyenne Mountain Complex, after you've signed these non-disclosure agreement." He said as he handed out the two big stacks of paper.

Both Malcolm and Michael immediately signed the agreements, and George Hammond continued.

"Very well. Please open the blast doors." Hammond said to the sergeant on duty.

The doors opened, revealing the embarkation room and the Stargate.

"Wow!" Michael exclaimed before he jumped out of his seat and reached the glass windows in a split-second. He looked amazed at the large stone-like ring in the middle of the room, which was connected to all kinds of wires and monitors.

Malcolm soon followed, needing more time to run around the table and stand next to his friend. Both young kids looked wide-eyed at the room in front of them, taking in as much as they could at the same time.

"This is what we call the Stargate." General Hammond said. "Major Carter will explain to you what it is."

"This device, which we found many years ago, uses wormhole to travel to other planets." Carter started.

"Pre-set or custom made wormholes?" Michael interrupted her.

"What do you mean?" Carter said, surprised by the statement from the little boy.

"Well, does your gate use pre-set wormholes or does it create its own when you activate it?"

"What's the difference?"

"Well, a device that uses pre-set wormholes doesn't have to created them from scratch, meaning you can send matter through almost immediately after you activate it. But it has a slightly larger permanent power consumption and can only dial a limited number of other devices because each new device would have to be linked up to the network. A device that creates its own wormholes every time needs a lot more power to do so, but it doesn't need any power at all to store the non-active wormholes. And there's a slight delay between activation and when you can send matter through."

"Wow." Carter managed to bring out after she'd come out of her shock about what the little kid had just explained to her. "How do you know all this?"

"We built a wormhole-travel device. Malcolm figured the theories, I do the building-part, so it's only natural that we'd know the strong and weak points of our own devices." Michael explained.

"So you actually built a device capable of wormhole travel?" General Hammond asked in amazement.

"Yeah. I can show you." Michael said as he walked towards his backpack that he had placed near the chair before. He got the two rings out and an apple. He threw one ring to Malcolm, who caught it with ease and held it upright. Michael did the same and he pushed the buttons on the ring.

Immediately the room lit up green as an transparent screen of light appeared in the rings. Michael threw the apple through on one side, and Malcolm caught it on the other.

"Wow." Hammond said when the two boys had turned off the rings. "Do you have any idea what you've just created?"

"An device capable of sending almost limitless amounts of matter to the other side without the loss of time?" Michael suggested with a grin.

"Exactly." Hammond said.

"Wait, how did you find out the physics behind all of this?" Sam asked.

"We rewrote some theories, thought up a few new ones." Malcolm said.

"No, you did all that complicated stuff. I only built it." Michael interjected.

Malcolm looked at him like he was talking crazy.

"Come on, show them. You know all the theories, I don't."

"All-right." Malcolm conceded. "But I'll need something to write on."

"We have a whiteboard right here." Sam said.

Malcolm walked towards the whiteboard, took a marker and started writing several long, complex equations on the board.

"Wow. This is amazing." Sam said when Malcolm was finished. "You thought up all of this?"

"Yes." Malcolm answered, seeming a bit scared by all the attention he was suddenly receiving from everybody in the room, albeit in looks.

"But how did you know the mass of the electron?"

"We used several measuring techniques and then calculated it all out." Michael answered.

"Doesn't that cost incredible amount of computer power?"

"Well, not incredible. It took only a few weeks with the combined force of a few playstation-threes."

"Playstation-threes?" Carter asked.

"Yes, you know, the gaming computer? No? Geez, that thing has been on the market for a few years already."

"You calculated the mass of the electron on a gaming computer?"

"Yeah, why not? I mean, the computer power in the microprocessors of the graphical systems of the PS 3 is about the same as that of a supercomputer if you use four of them. And I upgraded the systems a little bit, so that they became a bit faster."

"Wait. The playstation three, would that be the third generation of the playstation from Sony?" O'Neill asked.

"Actually, it's the seventh generation of gaming computers, but yes, it is from Sony."

"Ah, that one."

"How did you crack it?" Carter asked.

"Crack the playstation?"

"Yes."

"Well, it isn't that hard once you figure out where the flaws in the security systems are."

"How do you mean, not hard? The entire community of hobbyist-hackers have been trying to crack the thing for the past few years, and none of them have succeeded. The security on the device is tough."

"Ah, just a bit of luck in finding the right flaws." Michael said. "Besides, I had a little help from Malcolm in finding them."

"Do you work together on this kind of projects all the time?"

"Pretty much, yeah. But usually Malcolm figures out the theoretical stuff and I build something from them."

"Do you build everything Malcolm thinks of?"

"Yes, I think. And I build a few things I thought of myself, but those aren't really complicated and all."

"Things like?"

"Well, for example, I built a small lawnmower-robot that works pretty well.."

"How well?"

"I haven't had any trouble with it so far. It figures out its own way around the garden."

"That's really nice." Carter concluded. "But I think we're drifting a bit off-topic now. So, would you like to be a part of the Stargate programme?"

* * *

A/N: What did you think of the second chapter? Better? Worse? Cliffhanger?


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: I know this chapter is a bit short, not even close to two-thousand words like my usual ones, but I found it quite pointless to stretch it out further. I hope next chapter will be a bit longer. I'm trying to turn this story into a humorous one, and I was wondering if it was working. Please leave a review/send me a message if it's bad.

Reviews are welcome!

* * *

Chapter 3

* * *

"So, with that set, I think you'll have a few more hours before you should return home." General Hammond concluded.

"All-right. Thank you, General." Michael said.

"Dismissed."

The whole group consisting of SG-1 and the two small boys left the conference room.

"So, what do you want to do?" Sam asked the boys that were walking alongside her through the corridors of the SGC.

"Well, I don't know about Malcolm, but I'm hungry." Michael said.

"Yeah, me too." Malcolm added.

"All-right. Then let's get something to eat." Carter said.

They made their way towards the mess hall, ignoring the surprised look of people in the hallways. Two little kids were not a common sight in the SGC, the most secret base in the world.

* * *

"So what do you guys do here besides travelling through the Stargate?" Michael asked when they all stood in line for food.

"Well, besides going through the Stargate we fight bad guys, kill bad guys, hurt bad guys and protect Earth from bad guys." O'Neill answered.

"Aren't you forgetting something, Jack?" Daniel said.

"Oh. Yeah. And we search for all kinds of cultural and technical mumbo-jumbo with which we keep our resident scientists busy."

"Mumbo-jumbo?" Michael asked.

"Is a technical term. Used to describe things usable for keeping Carter and Daniel here busy."

"That's not mumbo-jumbo. The things we do here may be the most important discoveries ever." Carter retorted.

"More important than the invention of pizza?" O'Neill mocked her.

"Yes, more important than the invention of pizza." Carter said in an annoyed voice.

"And more important than the invention of beer?"

"Sir, you're hopeless."

"Hopeless with beer and pizza."

Malcolm and Michael, who had followed the discussion with interest, were having trouble to contain their laughter.

When they had all gotten their food, they walked to SG-1's usual table. O'Neill and Teal'c grabbed extra chairs for Malcolm and Michael to sit on.

"But now serious. What do you guys do here?"

"Let's start at the beginning, shall we?" O'Neill started. "A long long time ago..."

"In a galaxy far, far away." Daniel finished him.

"In Egypt," O'Neill continued like he hadn't heard Daniel, "some guys found the Stargate buried in the sand. They dug it up and after several years of travelling the globe and sitting in dusty old museum basements someone managed to find out what the thing did. Well, what it was supposed to do, actually, because the thing didn't work."

Whole armies of scientists had bent themselves over the problem of getting the thing working, until Daniel here came, and figured it out in an hour or so. A team consisting of Daniel, me and a couple of other guys that aren't around anymore went through, and found ourselves on a planet called Abydos.

Abydos was, and still is, a desert world, so we encountered nomads comparable to the ones in Egypt. So Daniel almost had a heart attack from happiness, were it not that he was sneezing about twenty-four seven."

"Allergies." Daniel commented when he saw the questioning looks from the two boys.

"So we figured that it was just a boring, dusty old planet in which only Daniel would be interested, until we encountered aliens. You see, the nomads we encountered were just humans like you and me. But these aliens were worm-like parasitic creatures that take over their hosts and control them against their will."

"So what did you do?" Michael asked in awe.

"Well, we kinda blew up their flying pyramid ship, made friends with the Abydonians because we killed their false, tyrannical god, and left Daniel behind."

"You left Daniel behind?"

"Yeah. The guy wanted to pick up more of their culture. And probably because he'd found himself a girlfriend there. So we returned, without Daniel, but because we blew up an alien ship people thought it was too dangerous to continue exploring. That, and none of the other combinations worked."

"Dialling combinations?"

"Yes. You see, Daniel here figured out that each address corresponds to a unique position in space, give or take a few thousand miles. So not each address has a working gate on the other end, and when there's no gate you can't dial. So the program was abandoned."

"So how come you are going to the gate now?"

"Well, a few years later some other bad guys came through, shot up a few folks and then returned back through the gate. So we dialled the only address we knew of to check if everything was ok, and where the heck those aliens had come from. So we went there after checking if it was safe, found Daniel there married to a woman called Sha're. The guy hadn't been sitting still because he spoke, and still speaks, their language fluently, and apparently he had found some kind of tablet with all kinds of addresses on it."

"So there were more planets than Abydos with a working gate?"

"Yes. We dialled those addresses, but none of them worked. Turns out the cartouche was about ten thousand years old, not surprising because it was dusty as hell and Daniel found it in an equally dusty old temple that belonged to the alien we blew up. So Carter here figured out it had something to do with planetary drift, built a very smart computer that calculated all the current addresses and we are constantly going through the gate to explore the planets the thing spits out."

"And what happened to the aliens that attacked Earth?"

"Well, they turned out to be an enemy of the alien we blew up on Abydos. That was kind of a big guy in intergalactic terms, and all big intergalactic rulers have arch-enemies. So those aliens, which were of the same race as the guy we blew up called the Goa'uld, were soldiers of Apophis. And Apophis was the enemy of Ra, the alien we blew up."

"Ra and Apophis like the Egyptian gods?"

"Yeah, exactly those." Daniel clarified.

"Apophis took Daniel's wife, Sha're, and a friend of us called Skaara, and left. And that's essentially, in short, how the 'war' between us and the Goa'uld started." O'Neill concluded.

"So we're at war?" Michael asked.

"Essentially, yes."

"What?" O'Neill said after receiving frightened looks from Malcolm and Michael.

"Aren't they going to attack us?"

"They did, but they failed. We have a barrier, the iris, in front of the gate. If they come here without authorization from our size they'll slam into the iris and die. And if they come by ship we have allies that can help us."

"We have allies too? Cool!" Michael said enthusiastically.

"Yes. The Asgard protect us from the Goa'uld. But they won't interfere or help us out in technological aspects, so we have to figure those out ourselves. Which is where you come in handy."

"Can't you figure it out yourselves?" Malcolm asked.

"We can, but it takes a lot of time. Carter here is just as smart as you are, which is way smarter than I am, but with three heads it gets easier than with only one."

"Don't forget Daniel." Carter interjected.

"Sam, I'm not from the technological department. Michael and Malcolm here are way more useful to you than they could do in my subject, I think."

"Yeah, Carter. You do the big honkin' space guns while Daniel reads dusty old books." O'Neill said.

"We have space guns too? Awesome!"

"No, not yet. But we're working on it."

"Are we close to having space guns?" Michael asked O'Neill.

"Well, Carter, are we?"

"I don't precisely know how far we are, that's up to the guys at area 51, but we're making progress."

"So you're stuck?" Michael answered.

"Stuck? No, we're definitely making progress."

"When someone says he's making progress, he's stuck. When someone says he had a breakthrough, then he's making progress." Michael said philosophically.

"Who said that again?" O'Neill asked.

"I just did." Michael said dumbfounded, the look on his face making Daniel and Malcolm almost cry out laughing.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: I hope this chapter reaches it's goal, which is to make you laugh. Please read and enjoy!

Reviews are welcome!

* * *

Chapter 4

* * *

"Where do you think you're going?" Sergeant Connors asked. He had been a sergeant for a few years at the SGC already, and he had seen a lot of strange things happening, but two young kids walking around the halls unsupervised was a bit too much for him. Besides, he was on guard and it was his job to make sure nobody intruded the base.

"Too the shooting range?" One of the two young boys suggested innocently.

"Aren't you two a bit young to be here?"

"No. I'm twelve and he's nine. So as long as we're together we're twenty-one." The oldest one said with a smile.

"Do you even have permission to be here?"

"Do we need to?"

"Come with me please." Sergeant Connors said while grabbing both boys by a shoulder.

"Ow! Stop! You're hurting me!" Michael said loudly as he was pulled through the corridor by Sergeant Connors.

He merely grumbled, but he eased his grip on the shoulders of both boys.

* * *

They were walking towards General Hammond's room, when they heard a shout come from behind.

"Connors! Where do you think you are going with them?"

He turned around and saw Colonel O'Neill walking hastily towards him.

"They were snooping around, and the SGC is not a place for little kids to be running freely, so I'm taking them to General Hammond."

"They're with me, Connors. Do you honestly think we'd let two young kids walk into here freely?" O'Neill said angrily.

"No, sir. I…" Connors stammered.

"You weren't thinking. Again. Release them. They're here with the permission of General Hammond."

"Sorry, sir." Connors said hastily as he released his grip on the shoulders of the young boys.

Michael and Malcolm walked over swiftly towards O'Neill.

"Did he hurt you?" O' Neill asked softly.

"No." Michael said, and Malcolm shook his head in agreement.

"All-right."

O'Neill straightened his back and looked up. "Where'd he go?"

"He ran away." Malcolm said emotionlessly.

"Coward. Where were you going when he found you?"

"The shooting range." Michael answered.

"The shooting range?"

"Yes, that one."

"Why would you need to go there?"

"For testing."

"Testing what?"

"Can we show you?"

"Well, all-right. But you should probably warn Hammond or one of us when you go there. The shooting range is a bit too dangerous to have two little kids running around." O'Neill said as they walked towards the shooting range.

"We're not little kids!" Michael said.

"And we weren't running!" Malcolm added.

"No offense, but you are little."

"Are not!"

"Are too!"

"Are not!"

"Are too!"

"Arguing with us like a little kid makes you one yourself too!" Malcolm said.

"Fine. But I'm still an adult." O'Neill said.

"Are not!"

"Are too!"

"Are not!"

"Are too!"

"Why are you arguing like that?" Daniel asked as he rounded the corner to see what was causing the noise.

"O'Neill says we're little kids while he's arguing with us like a little kid too, which would prove that we are little kids for arguing with us like one, but wouldn't prove that he is one too!" Michael said quickly.

"I'm not getting that completely, but I'd say that you are physically still kids, whereas Jack is mentally one." Daniel said with a sigh.

"Nah-ah! No buts! From either of you!" Daniel said when he saw that the three in front of him were about to protest.

Malcolm and Michael sighed and looked unhappy, but they complied. Jack shot Daniel a glare, but didn't say anything.

"Now, where were you going?" Daniel asked.

"The shooting range." Michael said.

"Why there?"

"We need to test something."

"What exactly needs to be tested on the shooting range?"

"We can show you, but we need to do that on the shooting range."

"As long as you do it safely, and an adult, which means one of the personnel here, is present with you, it's okay with me." Daniel said.

"Can we finally test it now?" Michael asked.

"All-right."

"Okay then." He said as all three of them continued on their way to the shooting range.

* * *

They arrived in the shooting range a few minutes later, finding it completely deserted.

"Can we finally test it now?" Michael asked O'Neill.

"Not yet. Ear protectors first."

The two little kids searched for ear protectors their size, and found them after a while. They put them on, and O'Neill followed them.

* * *

Michael grabbed some kind of small bow, which he had obviously hidden in his bag previously, and a quiver of arrows. He stood in front of the range, and looked to O'Neill for confirmation.

Jack had been surprised when Michael grabbed the small bow from his backpack, but he figured the kids would have been in big trouble when they carried self-made weapons openly. Besides, it didn't look like an actual bow, more like a toy. O'Neill figured it couldn't do too much damage. And besides, being at the SGC was a dangerous job. So carrying a bow wasn't that extremely dangerous in comparison to being here.

O'Neill signalled Michael that he could go on and fire the bow. He took one of the arrows he was carrying and put it on the string of the bow. He pulled back, took aim, and let go.

O'Neill saw the arrow fly in slow-motion, and hit the target right in the middle. He was quite surprised by Michael's aim, but he didn't notice that both Michael and Malcolm had taken cover while the arrow was flying.

* * *

The following explosion blew O'Neill away. Almost a whole second after the arrow had found its target, it exploded. The force of the explosion caught the still-standing O'Neill and pushed him over. Michael and Malcolm, who had sought cover immediately, were unharmed.

"What the heck was that!" O'Neill shouted at the two kids that were huddled close together against one of the walls of the shooting range after standing up. The force had toppled him over, making him land painfully on the floor. But he hadn't been hit by scrap concrete, thankfully, and neither were Michael and Malcolm.

* * *

"What the hell did you think you were doing?" He continued to shout at the frightened little kids that were huddled together against the wall.

"Is everything all-right?" Carter panted as she ran into the room, obviously having heard the loud explosion that rocked the SGC.

"Wow. What happened here?" Daniel asked an angry-looking O' Neill when he entered the room a split-second behind Carter.

"They wanted to test their new weapon." O'Neill shouted angrily.

"They built a weapon that caused that?" Daniel signalled toward the far end of the room, where Michael had aimed towards.

O'Neill pivoted around to see what Daniel was pointing to when his mouth fell on the floor in surprise. There was a fucking crater in the wall. Not a bullet-hit, not a tear, but a fucking CRATER! The shot had destroyed well over a cubic metre of solid concrete, tearing away a large chunk of wall of the shooting range. Thankfully the concrete was specially made for this kind of damage, and hadn't splintered a lot. But there were large chunks of loose concrete lying spread out over the floor.

"How the heck did you make such a dangerous weapon?" O'Neill asked angrily.

"We sorta tried to make a mixture that exploded on impact, but it was a bit too effective I think." Michael said softly.

"A bit? You blew away half the wall!"

"Sorry!"

* * *

"What happened here?" Frasier shouted as she entered the room followed by several other medics.

"I tested my new weapon." Michael said softly, looking a bit sad.

"You did that?" Frasier asked.

"Yes." Followed softly.

"Is everyone unharmed?" Frasier asked.

"I think so." O'Neill answered, looking questioning towards Malcolm and Michael.

"I'm all-right." Michael said while he stood up.

"Me too." Malcolm added.

"All-right." Frasier said.

"We should probably call Hammond that everything is all-right here." Sam said.

"Except for the crater in the wall that these two here caused." O'Neill added.

Daniel moved towards the phone and called for Hammond.

* * *

"So how did you manage to make such a large explosion?" Sam asked Michael.

"Malcolm here theorized a kind of explosive mixture, and I found a way to make it safely. It's a liquid, and we coated an arrow in it."

"An arrow?"

"Yes, an arrow like in bow and arrow. These ones." Michael said as he showed them the bow and arrow he built.

"Couldn't you at least have given me a head warning?" O'Neill asked.

"How? I couldn't hear anything through the ear protectors."

"You should have said something **before **you fired it." O'Neill said sarcastically

"But we asked if we could test a weapon in the shooting range, so it's only logical that it's dangerous. If it weren't, I'd obviously have tested in somewhere else." Michael returned.

"This shooting range is for weapons that are supposed to kill a person, not destroy a tank!"

"How was I supposed to know that!"

"GUYS!" Sam shouted over the two arguing voices.

Michael and O'Neill stopped arguing and looked at her questioningly.

"Malcolm, Michael, if you want to test anything dangerous please report it to us first, including what it is and how dangerous it is. Colonel, you could have given them a head warning about what kind of shooting range this was." Sam said loudly. "Now, If would you mind telling us what was on the arrow that caused such an explosion?"

"A mixture of a meta-stable substance and some deuterium and tritium." Malcolm answered shortly after a look from Michael.

"Nuclear Fusion?" Sam asked surprised.

"Uh-huh. The meta-stable substance absorbs the deuterium and tritium. On impact, the crystalline structure of the carrier substance shatters and forms itself anew in a smaller, more compact structure. That process pushes the deuterium and tritium so hard together that they fuse and create helium and a lot of energy." Malcolm explained.

"How do you control it? Nuclear Fusion gives off a whole lot of energy, enough to destroy the whole mountain."

Malcolm shot Michael a look, and he answered. "Well, we only use very little amounts of it, and we use the wrong mixture. Good enough to create nuclear fusion, but strong enough to do a little bit of damage to a wall."

"A little bit?"

"Ok, a big bit."

"So you could have blown away the whole mountain if you made a mistake in the mixture." O'Neill said.

"In theory, yes."

"Why only in theory?" Sam asked.

"Well, we never actually tested the best and most powerful mixtures."

"How did you manage to create a meta-stable substance?"

"Well, I theorized the existence of a few of those mixtures, and Michael figured out how to create them." Malcolm answered.

"It's very easy. You only need some red mercury and a gamma-radiation source." Michael added.

"Where did you find such a source? It's pretty radioactive, so I don't think you could buy one on the internet."

"You'd be surprised. But they're still pretty expensive, so I made one from an old toaster."

"An old toaster?"

"Yeah. It becomes much easier to create your own radioactive elements when you heat things up a little bit."

"Radioactive? Are you serious? Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?"

"Yes, I'm pretty sure I know just exactly how dangerous that is. That's why I took precautionary measures."

"Such as?"

"Making a radiation-absorbing suit that works pretty well, as well as a containment chamber for storage."

"Do you have any idea what happens when your containment chamber breaks?"

"Hmm. Let me think. The radioactive radiation would be released. And given that the other precautionary measures I took fail too, I think there would be a radioactive containment of an old salt layer about three-hundred meters under my house." Michael summed up

"Three hundred meters? How did you get that far down?"

"By using a spoon and a dictionary? No seriously, what do you think?"

"So you're saying that a twelve and a nine year old boy built a nuclear reactor of some kind to produce radioactive elements, a safe storage three hundred meters underground in a salt layer, figured out the theories of meta-stable substances, produced enough deuterium and tritium for successful nuclear fusion and made a controllable mixture that is usable for destroying things without a lot of personal risk?" Sam said.

"Well that about sums it up, I think." Michael said.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: This is my shortest chapter yet, but I felt no need to stretch it out further. I'm hoping that the following chapter comes sooner, now that I have found my inspiration again. I hope you like it!

Reviews are welcome!

* * *

Chapter 5

* * *

"Young men, I think we need to discuss the issue of safety." General Hammond started, giving an imposing look to the two boys that were sitting in his office.

"You will be under surveillance from an adult as long as you are on this base. When you are at home during the weekdays, you are free to do as you please. But when you are on this base an adult must be present at all times. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir." Both boys said softly.

"And if you want to test or do anything dangerous, like testing your weapon, you must first ask permission from either me or Colonel O'Neill."

"Yes sir."

"Any failure to comply with these rules will result in punishment. Have I made myself clear?"

"Yes sir."

"Dismissed."

Both boys stood up from the chairs and left Hammond's office. O'Neill was already waiting outside.

* * *

"I'm supervising you until tonight. Since it's Saturday evening you can sleep here at the mountain if you wish. Does any of you need some stuff from back home?"

"Nah, I'm good." Michael said. "Told my parents I was staying with Malcolm."

"I'm fine too, since we're going back tomorrow." Malcolm added.

"Hey! It's almost nine already. I've personally never like bedtimes myself, but I'm guessing you're pretty tired by now." O'Neill said, changing the subject.

"I'm not tired." Michael said with a yawn.

"Clearly your body thinks otherwise."

"Betrayer!" Michael said to his arm with a smile on his face.

"I'm pretty tired too." Malcolm said with another yawn.

"Yeah, maybe we should go to bed." Michael said, yawning widely.

Both boys yawned a few more times before O'Neill noticed what they were doing, and yawned too.

"Colonel O'Neill, maybe you should go to bed too."

"I'm not tired."

"Clearly your body thinks otherwise." Michael said with a grin as O'Neill yawned, having been infected by the yawns from Michael and Malcolm.

"Smart-ass. C'mon. I'll show you to your room. You don't mind sharing with each other?" O'Neill said with a grin.

"No, not really." Michael said.

* * *

Half an hour later Malcolm and Michael were lying in their beds in the room they had been assigned too. It was a slightly-larger-than-usual room, due to the fact that it had two occupants instead of one.

"Wanna play a game?" Michael asked Malcolm.

"Ok. But not too long. I'm pretty tired already." Malcolm answered.

"All-right." Michael answered before both he and Malcolm grabbed their bags and took two small laptops out of them.

"Are you hosting or shall I?" Michael asked.

"Can you host this time, please?"

"All-right."

* * *

Meanwhile, in the control room.

"Sir, we're detecting a strange signal." One of the sergeants in the control room said.

"What kind of signal?" Hammond asked.

"An electronic signal like the one we use for wireless networks, sir."

"Where is it coming from?"

"Inside this base, sir. Level eighteen, corridor D."

"I'll go, sir. That's were our two resident geniuses are." O'Neill said.

* * *

A few minutes later O'Neill, having met Sam on the way, had reached level eighteen and they both stood before the door leading to the boy's room. He knocked before opening the door.

"What are you doing?" He asked the two boys that were lying on their beds with laptops in their laps, sounding a bit angry.

"Gaming." Michael said, not paying any attention.

"I thought I said it was bed-time."

"You did. You did say it was bed-time, and we're in our beds."

"You're supposed to be sleeping. It's almost ten already!"

"You didn't say that it was sleeping time."

"Well, it's late and you are probably gonna have a long day tomorrow. The scientists from Area 51 want to meet you. And besides, you're giving off a signal that's doing strange things with our stuff."

"Oh, sorry. Forgot to turn it off." Michael said before he flicked a switch on his laptop.

"What was it, anyways?" Sam asked, after radioing the control room to check if the signal had disappeared.

"A network-crawler. It searches for nearby networks until it finds an unprotected one. And if it finds multiple it connects to both to speed up data transfer."

"And what would it do if it finds only protected ones like here, in this base?"

"Depends on the configuration. If I desperately want to find something online I crack security and use the protected networks, but if it's not really necessary I usually turn it off completely. Only I forgot to turn if off last time."

"You would crack the security? Doesn't that vary extremely from network to network?"

"Yes, there are many security systems and many different types of networks. It's never hard, though."

"Never hard, eh? Can you crack the security system of this base, you think?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Not tonight." O'Neill interrupted.

"Why not?"

"Firstly because I want both of you to sleep tonight, so put those laptops away now, and secondly because we'd have to have permission from General Hammond."

"All-right." Michael sighed while he and Malcolm closed the laptops and put them away in the respective bags. "But tomorrow I'm going to test your security system here, if it's all-right with the General of course.."

"I'll ask him." Sam said.

"Goodnight." O'Neill said.

" 'night." Both boys mumbled before turning around in their beds.

Carter and O'Neill left the room and closed the door. A few minutes later they appeared in the control room.

"And?" Hammond asked.

"Was just the two boys gaming. It has stopped, right?" O'Neill said.

"It stopped a few minutes ago."

* * *

"Sir, I want to see how much computer skills the boys have. Can I let them try to hack into the base network? I'll be with them the entire time, and monitor what they are doing." Sam asked a minute later.

"You hopefully do understand, Major Carter, that if they damage anything I'll hold you responsible?"

"Of course, sir. I'll make sure they don't damage anything."

"Then all-right. Tomorrow morning between eight and eight-thirty they have half an hour to crack into the base network."

"Thank you, sir."

"Dismissed."


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Sorry for the extremely late update. I know I post too slow and too few, but I can't help it. There are so many interesting things to do. Reading other fanfics, playing minecraft, going to school (not), flunking tests (is very tiring!), fighting wars with Office 2010 because it's doing things it's supposed to do.

This chapter's a bit on the short side I think, but I hope I made up for it with the humour. This is the second rewrite because the first one sucked and the original one was so bad my eyes hurt. I hope you like it!

Reviews are Welcome!

* * *

"Good morning kids." O'Neill said with a big grin plastered on his face.

"Good morning." Carter said as she and O'Neill joined the two kids sitting at the table.

" 'morning." Michael said.

"Michael, Malcolm, I talked to General Hammond last night and he gave permission to test how skilled you are with computers."

"Cool. What's the task?" Michael asked.

"Hack into the base mainframe." Carter answered.

"How are you going to test whether we actually got into the mainframe?" Malcolm asked.

"There's a small text file stored somewhere in the mainframe. You must search it and open it. I'll stay with you and check what you're doing all the time."

"Cool. What do we get if we manage to hack into the base's mainframe and find the file?" Michael asked.

"I haven't really thought about that yet. Colonel, do you know of anything suitable for if they manage to crack the system?" Carter asked.

"Noth beally." O'Neill said with his mouth full of spoon and cereal.

"What?" Carter said.

"Not really." O'Neill clarified after he had swallowed.

"I'll have to think of something in the mean time then." Carter decided.

"When can we start?" Michael asked.

"Between eight and eight thirty you can hack into the system. Anything happening outside those times will have consequences."

"Such as?"

"Telling Carter how you did it and helping her fix it so it won't happen again." O'Neill interjected. "And maybe a yelling or to from either me or General Hammond."

"That's fine with me." Michael said.

"All-right." Carter said.

"So we can try to crack into the base system until eight thirty, but what can we do afterwards? We won't have to leave until four o'clock so that leaves us with pretty much time to do nothing." Michael said after a few moments.

"Well, there are some scientists coming from Area 51 around ten, I think, that want to take a closer look at the things you've made. Especially the wormhole-travel-ring." Carter said.

"Oh no. Tell me McKay isn't coming. Please?" O'Neill said dramatically.

"No, McKay isn't coming. He's somewhere else, currently very busy." Carter said.

"Who's McKay?" Michael asked.

"A scientist from Area 51." Carter said.

"An extremely arrogant scientist from Area 51 that thinks he's the best in the world and that nobody will ever be able to comprehend what goes around in his mind because he's the greatest genius that ever lived. And he has a crush on Carter." O'Neill said.

"More like an obsession." Carter added.

"Is he that bad?" Michael asked.

"He's a bit arrogant, yes." Carter said.

"If he's a bit arrogant then the Mount Everest is a foothill." O'Neill proclaimed dryly.

"You know that there are bigger mountains than the Mount Everest, right?" Michael asked.

"Are not. Mount Everest is the highest mountain on Earth." O'Neill said.

"Depends on your definition of highest. If you measure from foot to top, then the award for highest mountain goes to Mauna Loa on Hawaii, but if you measure furthest distance from the centre of the Earth than the highest point is Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador." Michael clarified.

"Hawaii? Never thought there were really big mountains there." O'Neill said.

"Most of the mountain is hidden beneath the surface. In fact, the entire island is made up of only one giant mountain with several peaks. All of them are or were volcanoes." Michael said.

"So that's why it can smell so awful there." O'Neill said.

"Hey, it's almost eight." Carter interrupted. "You should get ready to try and crack the network."

"All-right." Michael said as he, Malcolm and Sam stood up and left the mess hall.

"Wait up! I'm coming too!" O'Neill said hastily.

* * *

Five minutes later Michael and Malcolm were sitting with laptops on the desk in Sam's lab. Sam was checking both their screens and O'Neill was sitting on a table and observing the whole thing.

"It's almost eight o'clock. You have to crack the network, search the file in the entire mainframe and pull up the code on your screen inside half an hour. Starting NOW." Carter said after a look on her watch.

Both boys immediately started typing and clicking furiously.

"I'm in." Both boys said almost simultaneously after half a minute.

"Found it." They said at exactly the same time, only seconds later.

"How did you do that? It's not humanly possible to hack into the mainframe that fast. It's the best secured network in the entire US!" Sam said flabbergasted.

"It wasn't humanly possible to hack into the system, but it wasn't a requirement that a human hacks it." Michael said.

"What do you mean?"

"Well both Malcolm and I have quite some experience writing programs, and hacking programs aren't the toughest ones to design or write."

"But how did you get in?"

"The security system is extremely complex, and that is where the flaw lies. A human hacker would have had extreme trouble fighting ways through all the firewalls, barriers, trackers and control mechanisms, but a computerized hacking program doesn't have much trouble at all. It's just a matter of running a few dozen operations simultaneously and pressing the right points in the security system. Of course it helps a bit if you can just barge straight through the first fifteen firewalls."

"Can you show me the program?"

"Yeah, sure. It's quite big though, so it might take a while to check it all out." Michael said. "It's being transmitted to your personal laptop right now."

* * *

"This is huge. It's one of the largest programs I've ever seen." Carter said after she had opened her laptop and found the program. "Did you write it all by yourselves?"

"Malcolm found some interesting algorithms and I designed it so that it can learn from each previous hack, crack or forced entry."

"That is amazing. We've been working on programs that have the ability to learn for years!"

"It's not perfect yet. The first thousand or so hacks must be done by a human hacker before the program can correctly interpret the style and skills of the hacker. And after that it still has trouble adapting to new styles and methods. And, of course, when something new is discovered or patched, you have to update it every once in a while. But it can learn by itself, and the limitations on how much it can learn are just set by the skills and diversity of the human hackers it has met." Michael explained.

"So when exactly is it going to take over the world?" O'Neill asked sarcastically.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: This is my Christmas present to all of you. I hope it is the way I intended it to be (humorous and funny). I'm sorry for all the McKay-lovers out there for making McKay sound so arrogant, but in my opinion he was arrogant before he went to Atlantis.

I hope you like it and Merry Christmas!

* * *

Chapter 7 - Wanna Bet?

* * *

"Major Carter, the scientists from Area 51 have arrived, ma'am, and Doctor McKay wishes to see you." The sergeant said just before leaving.

"All-right." Carter said, keeping her face emotionless.

"Is McKay coming?" O'Neill asked. "I thought he was busy doing ... things."

"Apparently not too busy to stop by." Carter said.

"Is he that bad?" Michael asked.

"Yeah, he is that bad." O'Neill answered.

"Really?"

"Yes."

* * *

"Major Carter." McKay stiffly nodded as he entered the room, followed by two other scientists.

"Doctor McKay." Carter returned the greeting equally stiff.

"So how is your next pet project coming up?" McKay asked, sarcasm dripping from his tone.

"Very well. In fact, it has exceeded all my expectations." Carter deadpanned, giving a cold stare to McKay

"Couldn't have been hard, exceeding your expectations." McKay retorted, returning the stare.

"Which expectations?" Michael asked, disrupting the staring match between Carter and McKay.

"The expectations that two young kids could actually comprehend the kind of theories we deal with on a daily basis." McKay said coldly while staring at Michael, who stared back unfazed.

"Oh, so you mean the inefficient sequences of nonsensical numbers and letters which hide that the creator's mind can't comprehend the theorem entirely and therefore has to dumb it down to a more comprehensible level?" Michael said emotionless.

"No, I mean the extremely complicated theorems that you do not have a hope of ever understanding." McKay retorted.

"Complicated like the wormhole theory?" Michael asked.

"Oh please, the wormhole theory is a simple as any linear equation."

"Then why weren't you able to build a successful wormhole transportation system?" Michael asked.

"Building a successful wormhole transportation system is a lot more complicated than simply understanding the theories. It's not even coming close to being the same."

"So you'd say that building a successful transportation system that uses wormholes to get from one place to another is more complicated than figuring out the theories behind it?"

"Yes, I would say that." McKay said, blind and deaf for the trap that was being laid out for him.

"Then why were Malcolm and I successful in building one, whereas you have been struggling to build one for years? Doesn't that prove that we're smarter than you?"

"It's not possible. It's not possible that you've built a successful wormhole transportation system. Only the Ancients, the gate-builders, could do that."

"Wanna make a bet that we could build another wormhole transportation system, completely different from the one the Stargate uses?"

"Yes, I would like to make that bet. It's completely unthinkable that anyone the likes of you could build such a thing, whereas the smartest scientists in the world have tried doing that since the gate was discovered."

"If we win, which is very unlikely according to the greatest scientific minds in the world," Michael said to lure McKay into his trap, "will you admit that you have been an arrogant asshole and that you have been beaten by two young boys?"

"All-right. But if you are unable to construct a wormhole transportation device on short notice, will you then admit that there is no way you could ever come close to understanding the kind of theorems that we deal with here?"

"That's fine with me." Michael said.

"On short notice is considered one week. No help from Carter and no copying the Stargate is allowed." McKay hastily added, seeing the small smile that was playing on Michaels lips.

"It's still fine with me."

"So we have a deal." McKay concluded.

"Malcolm, are you up to the task of proving this arrogant sir wrong?" Michael asked.

"Yup. Any time."

"Major Carter, do you have space to write out a theorem dumbed down enough for Doctor McKay here?" Michael asked.

"Yeah, there's a whiteboard over there." Carter said, pointing towards the whiteboard in the corner of her lab.

"Malcolm, can you start writing the theories? In a way simple enough for McKay to understand, please."

"Yeah, sure." Malcolm said as he walked over to the board, climbed up a chair and started writing on the topmost part of the board.

"All-right." Michael said as he reached down for his bag, to grab the two rings.

"It's clearly inspired on the Stargate. I said no copying it, didn't I? So this one doesn't count." McKay said as he saw the two rings, nervosity for losing the bet now audible in his voice.

"It isn't inspired on the Stargate because when Malcolm and I built it we had never heard of a Stargate. And, as Malcolm is proving right now, it doesn't have anything in common with the Stargate besides the most basic functions. So this one **does** count, Doctor McKay." Michael said dryly.

"It won't work." McKay snorted. "It's not possible."

"Say that again when you've lost the bet."

"Hey! That's not the right theorem you're using there!" McKay suddenly said, pointing to a spot on the board where Malcolm had written out several difficult and long equations.

"It's not wrong." Malcolm said.

"Yes it is." McKay retorted.

"It's not. But I'm not going to prove it, it's way too complex for you to understand anyway."

"Hmpf. Where'd you learn these kinds of theories then?"

"I figured them out, with a bit of help from Michael."

"Have you finished, Malcolm?" Michael asked.

"Pretty much, yes. It's not like McKay here is going to admit that these theories are correct until he sees them in action."

"Okay. Can you hold this?" Michael asked McKay as he gave him one of the rings. "Ok thanks. No, wait, hold the side with the button away from you and grab it by the handle."

"I'm not stupid, you know." McKay said.

Michael suppressed a retort and grabbed the other ring in both hands and pushed a button. A soft roar started coming from the rings, and McKay's face started paling bit by bit as he saw that he was going to lose the bet.

A flat screen of green light formed in both rings simultaneously.

"I'm going to push something trough, all-right? So you can see that it's working."

"No! Wait! If you have the theories wrong the action of you pushing something trough the wormhole might interfere with the gridwork of the gate, creating an..." McKay said on lightning speed, before he was struck in the chest by an half-eaten apple, that bounced into the garbage bin harmlessly.

"Sorry. My aim was off." O'Neill said with a grin.

"Keep your projectiles to yourself." McKay snorted angrily.

"Colonel, I was going to use that apple. Never mind. Sam, can I use this book?" Malcolm asked while grabbing a big book.

"Yeah, sure." Sam said.

"Ok. Ready?" Michael asked.

"If it works." McKay said.

"It's coming through now." Michael said as he pushed the book smoothly through the barrier. As soon as he had pushed it through all the way, it appeared on the other side.

"How did y-... It's not possible to... No way on Earth..." McKay muttered incoherently.

"I believe Malcolm and I have won our bet, doctor McKay." Michael said.

"It's not p-... How in the name of..." McKay stuttered.

"If you want proof, ask Malcolm. He's the one who thought of all those complex, 'not-correct' theories that are faulty because most of the scientific world, that means you, think they're stupid because they were made up by a nine year old boy." Michael said dryly.

McKay stared at Michael angrily, not capable of thinking of a clever response.

"Now, Dr McKay, I believe you need to say something, according to a certain bet we've made?"

"Fine. I'm an arrogant asshole and I've been beaten by two young boys." McKay said reluctantly, seeing that weaselling out from under a bet would be extremely cowardly, too cowardly even for him. And he wasn't stupid enough to try such a thing in front of O'Neill. A monkey with a gun was a dangerous thing, after all.


End file.
